Pearl pigments are used in various fields. For example, for industrial applications, the pearl pigments are used for wallpaper, floor, plastic molding, leather coating, silk printing, offset printing, painting of home appliances, ceramics applications, etc. In addition, for cosmetic applications, the pearl pigments are used for a wide range of color cosmetics such as lipsticks, nail polish, hair gel, eye shadow, lip gloss, etc. Further, the pearl pigments are used for interior and exterior painting for automobiles, construction, and ship paints which require high weather resistance.
In addition, functional pearl pigments have excellent properties such as heat resistance, chemical stability, electrical conductivity, electromagnetic shielding property, corrosion resistance, etc., which are possible to be widely available in many industrial fields.
In general, the pearl pigments are prepared by SnCl4 coating on a plate-shaped substrate using hydrothermal synthesis, followed by TiO2 coating thereon. However, the hydrothermal synthesis has limitations in that a time required for coating reaction is long, and it is not possible to coat a metal salt.
Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2006-0105922 (published on Oct. 12, 2006) disclosed a metal-based pearl pigment and a method for preparing the same, as a Patent Document relevant to the present invention.